1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and particularly to an image processing apparatus that can reduce time and effort spent by a user for a transmission of image data, as well as inhibit an erroneous transmission of image data to an unintended destination address.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a facsimile apparatus having a function of multi-address transmission, which is a function to send data to a plurality of destination addresses easily. The multi-address transmission function enables a user to send data of a document to a plurality of destination addresses although reading of the document for obtaining the data is implemented only once. Hence, the multi-address transmission can save effort and time spent by the user when the user sends a document to a plurality of destination addresses.
On the other hand, there is a case where a document consisting of a plurality of pages is read, and a user desires to send data of the document to a plurality of destination addresses such that data of some of the pages is sent to all the destination addresses but data of the other pages is sent to only a part of the destination addresses. For instance, as is often the case with facsimile transmissions, when the user desires to send a document to a plurality of destination addresses with a facsimile transmittal sheet expressing a name of an addressee and others being attached to the top of the document, the facsimile transmittal sheets are individually prepared and sent to the respective destination addresses with the document, but the document itself is commonly sent to all the destination addresses.
To meet such a demand, there has been proposed an image processing apparatus that can send image data of a document consisting of a plurality of pages, which image data is obtained by reading the document, to a plurality of destination addresses in different manners among the destination addresses such that only one or more pages desired to be sent to each particular one of the destination addresses is/are sent to the particular destination address, as disclosed in JP-A-2004-172874, for instance. More specifically, a user selects one of a plurality of set destination addresses and then selects a page or pages to be sent to the selected destination address, after which the user selects a next one of the destination addresses, and then a page or pages to be sent to the next selected destination address. This step is repeated until the page selection is made for all the destination addresses. Thus, the user can send the document to the destination addresses in different manners among the destination addresses such that only a part of all the pages which is desired to be sent to each particular one of the destination addresses is sent to the particular destination address, although reading of the document is implemented only once. That is, a document can be sent to a plurality of destination addresses with a facsimile transmittal sheet for each of the destination addresses attached.
In the above-described apparatus, the destination address is selected such that first an address selection screen is presented in order that the user can select a destination address therethrough. After the user's selecting the destination address through the address selection screen, the address selection screen is closed or erased and a preview image of the read document is presented, through which the user selects a page or pages to be sent to the currently selected destination address, whereby an association between the destination address and the page or pages is set. According to this arrangement, however, the user can not simultaneously view the preview image and the currently selected destination address when the user associates the destination addresses with the pages to be sent to the respective destination addresses. Hence, during the repetitive, tedious work of setting the associations for all of the destination addresses, the user may associate a page or pages with a destination address that is not intended, resulting in an erroneous data transmission.